The Beauty of Simplicity

As we entered her home, my friend stopped to pick a couple of blossoms off the potted tree which adorned the front porch.  I thought nothing of it.  She then went to her kitchen and returned with a bowl filled with water.  The white flowers were at resting on the surface of the transparent liquid.  The exterior of the vessel matched the alabaster purity of the flowers.  The interior of the bowl was a vibrant green, which spoke of life.  She placed the bowl on a cabinet, its dark wood top providing the perfect field to display the simplistic beauty of this spontaneous art piece.

“Beautiful,” I said.  She then told me she had painted the bowl at Color Me Mine, a business where you can add your own artistic flair to a piece of pottery and then they fire it for you.  I have never been there myself, but I have seen more than one example of the pottery created there.  Each possessed a wonderful uniqueness, because it was born from the creative imagination of the one who painted it.  Most pieces have been very colorful and possessed some wonderful design or pattern which set it apart.  Her bowl did not seem to fit the mold of the other works I have seen come out of the establishment.

I made a comment about the fact her bowl did not fit my expectation of what would be created from a day spent at Color Me Mine.  She acknowledged I was probably right, and then explained why.  What she shared made the bowl even more beautiful to me.

She told me the bowl was created on a day with her husband, niece and mother. They decided to spend some special time together doing something fun.  Painting pottery seems like the perfect outing.  She told me about the intercity of the design her husband had painted on the martini glass he picked out.  I got the impression her niece and her mother had added similar artistic flairs to the objects they had chosen to paint.  My friend, on the other hand, purposely chose to add only one color to the inside of her dish.

Now if you knew my friend, you would know she is one of the most artistically gifted people you will ever meet.  Her choice was not made because she was afraid she could not pull off an intricate design, or because she had no vision for what the bowl could be.  She explained to me she had chosen to use only one color of paint, and to paint only one surface of the bowl so she would not have to focus her attention on the piece she was working on.  Instead, she would spend her time focusing on the people she was with. 

She explained she had pained twelve coats of the glaze on the interior of that bowl.  This was work which did not require much concentration, but allowed her to activity participate in the process her companions were engaged in.  The simplicity of it gave her the capacity to be fully present with those she was with.

I wonder if her fellow artists recognized how simple her design was.  I could just hear one of them asking, “Aren’t you going to do something more creative with your bowl?”  I wonder if they also noticed how the simplicity of her project allowed her to focus her attention on them. 

I can just imagine her encouraging them as they went about the creative process.  I can see the smile come across their faces when they experienced being seen by her as she engaged them in conversation, not only about the project in front of them, but about their lives outside of that studio.

While they painted their masterpieces, she created the space necessary to be mindful of those around her.  It was a gift filled with loving-kindness, grace and beauty.

I wish I could say this is the posture I would have taken if I found myself at the same table.  I am pretty sure I would have been more focused on what I was going to paint and how it was going to look.  The perfectionist in me would have wanted to center my attention on the unglazed pottery in front of me, rather than the people who were sitting next to me.  I am afraid I would have made it more of a competition than an opportunity to be present with others.

Looking at her piece of art, understanding why she made the choices she did, I am quite confident nothing I could make would be as striking as the simplistic beauty of her bowl.  I was thankful for the creative decisions she made, the clarity of the water, the flowers which floated on its surface, but most of all for the moment I found myself in and what it was teaching me. 

We may not find ourselves painting glaze on pottery this week, but we will enter into moments where we can choose to simplicity, in order to create the space which will allow us to be present with people.  Doing so may mean we refrain from using the full extent of our giftedness or capacities.  It may also keep from showing others how much we can accomplish or how talented we are.  We might find ourselves laying aside our competitive, perfectionist selves and in order to simply be with others.

Would you be open to that? Could you choose simplicity in order to create the space which would allow someone else to be seen and heard?  Could you find the beauty in choosing to paint with only one color of glaze in order to express a higher form of art, that of making people feel known, and loved?

I hope you can.  After taking in the beauty of my friends bowl, I am convinced this kind of artistry creates a beauty which cannot be matched.